I have the below questions pertaining to BW on HANA only, can some one please clarify: would really appreciate your help!

1. when we migrate the exiting cubes to "In Memory" cube, then we wont be having any more DIM tables. ?

2. now, If I want to do a "Real time" data load into this Cube. then can I use SLT?

3. when I use SLT, does that mean, the extractor should be real time enabled? and if it is, them when I do a data load, Am I actually doing a data load into BW Into In-Memory Cube? and if so, where can I see the data. do I need to login to HANA DB? or can I directly see it from Manage of Cube?

4.in which cases we need to create "attribute/analytical" views"?. I mean, now that I have the In memory cube (which has the Master data available in BW), do I still need to login to HDB and create "attribute/analytical" views"

1. when we migrate the exiting cubes to "In Memory" cube, then we wont be having any more DIM tables. ?

Ans: Yes, no more dimension tables - instead SIDs will be entered directly into the fact table making it a flat structure. You will not have the E table as well.

2. now, If I want to do a "Real time" data load into this Cube. then can I use SLT?

Ans: No, as far as I know & understand, SLT still works only with a standalone HANA database and not BW on HANA as yet. You will still have to continue with your normal BW ETL process and may be schedule it at frequent intervals to get near real-time replication.

3. when I use SLT, does that mean, the extractor should be real time enabled? and if it is, them when I do a data load, Am I actually doing a data load into BW Into In-Memory Cube? and if so, where can I see the data. do I need to login to HANA DB? or can I directly see it from Manage of Cube?

Ans: As stated above, SLT is not yet for BW on HANA. With stand alone HANA, it can replicate your source tables real-time and you can further create analytical/attribute/calc views on top of them. The work-around is for you to do that and publish the HANA views as transient providers within BW although I am not sure SAP officially supports this - I have been hearing mixed messages in this regard. You might just need to double check this with SAP or some one else in this forum might be able to confirm.

4.in which cases we need to create "attribute/analytical" views"?. I mean, now that I have the In memory cube (which has the Master data available in BW), do I still need to login to HDB and create "attribute/analytical" views"

Ans: With BW on HANA, you are not required to create views directly in HANA. An in-memory cube is an equivalent of an analytical view on HANA.

5. what and when do we use Transient Info Providers?

Ans: As stated for question 3, if you had BW on HANA and you created an analytical/calc view directly in HANA using the studio, you could publish this view as a transient provider in BW. Further, you can join them in a composite provider with your BW info providers. Bex will be able to see both transient and composite providers.

You could also create a virtual cube in RSA1 using an analytical or calculation view from the underlying HANA.

HANA views can be exposed to BW using Analytic Indexes in Composite Provider. As per my knowledge, this is officially supported by SAP. The Analytic Index in Composite Provider can be joined with InfoCubes / DSOs / SPOs / Master data objects etc.

Analytical Indexes are same as what is called Trasient providers I think. Or are they different?

When I publised it in BW, yeah it went on to be created as analytical indexes.

Yeah a lot of them tells me that is officially supported but few others have said No as there is a possibilty that you could corrupt the BW tablespace - not quite sure which version to believe. Given that, there are SAP delivered transactions to publish HANA models as analytical indexes(or transient providers?) I don't see how SAP cannot officially support it if someone were to do it. Also with Q4 I suppose, BW cubes will be exposed in HANA and will be able to use them directly in the Studio.

I'll see if I can get a confirmation on this - if not i am sure it is safe to assume that it is supported.

Yeah, so they are effectively the same - Transient Providers are nothing but "HANA models published as Analytical Indexes". The reason why they are separately referred to as transient providers is probably because you could create analytical indexes also via for e.g. APD's (even if you just had BWA).

4.in which cases we need to create "attribute/analytical" views"?. I mean, now that I have the In memory cube (which has the Master data available in BW), do I still need to login to HDB and create "attribute/analytical" views"

--- If you are using BW on HANA, then there is no need for "Attribute / Analytical" views. These are implemented on "Standalone" HANA. If you have DSOs / InfoCubes migrated to "BW on HANA", you can use the same for reporting.

You might want to create these views, in case you have some data flows implemented in Standalone HANA and you wish to integrate it with BW data model. But that depends on the business case.

5. what and when do we use Transient Info Providers?

In case of BW on HANA architecture, Transient Providers are used to combine the Standalone HANA models with BW on HANA models. Please refer to the blog below which can help you understand the Transient providers and the use in BW on HANA context.

2. now, If I want to do a "Real time" data load into this Cube. then can I use SLT?

--- Regarding the data loads to Cubes in BW on HANA architecture, the ETL process remains same as it is on any regular BW architecture.

3. when I use SLT, does that mean, the extractor should be real time enabled? and if it is, them when I do a data load, Am I actually doing a data load into BW Into In-Memory Cube? and if so, where can I see the data. do I need to login to HANA DB? or can I directly see it from Manage of Cube?

--- Regarding data loading to Cube and managing the data and InfoCube, it remains exactly same as it is now. Nothing on BW would change if you move to BW on HANA.

You have to publish the hana model within BW using transaction RSDD_HM_PUBLISH which creates a transient provider - effectively an analytic index out of it. You can then either report directly on it or combine that with other such analytical indexes or BW infoproviders within a composite provider that you can create using transaction RSLIMO/RSLIMOBW. You could also create composite providers from within workspaces in BW on HANA.

Yes, if you have SLT replicating into HANA tables, your analytical/calc views will get data from these tables.

Yes BO (BI 4.0) can connect to Analytical views in HANA. BOBJ explorer can talk directly to analytical views whereas say Webi has to go via Universe/Information Design Tool. Within the universe/IDT, you will have to access the equivalent column view of the Analytical view under the _SYS_BIC schema.

Kalyan, hope you have gone to the SAP deck on the topic. If not, checkout the deck in experiencehana website or let me know I can assist in getting you a copy. There are few cool diagrams depciting the details of the topic.